Tuesday

Feb 5, 2019 at 9:07 AMFeb 5, 2019 at 7:25 PM

Gov. Greg Abbott declared emergency items focused on schools and property taxes in a State of the State speech Tuesday before a joint session of the Legislature, an address that was devoid of the kind of blood-boiling issues that might distract from an already weighty and challenging agenda for the first session of his second term.

There was nothing surprising in the litany of legislation that Abbott identified as emergency items that the Legislature, which convened Jan. 8, can act on in the first 60 days of its biennial 140-day session. Abbott's forbearance underscored his commitment to focus on the knotty property tax and school finance questions that, if they are answered, would make good on Abbott's boast at the outset of his address that the lawmakers arrayed before him "will etch landmark achievements into this already historic chamber."

"This session, for just the next few months, we have a unique window of opportunity to tackle some challenges that have plagued Texas for more than a generation," Abbott said.

Democrats gave the address some plaudits.

"This was certainly a very different speech than we heard two years ago," said state Rep. Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, surrounded by many of his Democratic colleagues at a news conference just off the House floor immediately after the speech. "Some of the traditionally partisan, red-meat issues that governors have invoked in the past were largely absent, and we appreciate that.

"Seems as though election results have consequences," Turner added, a reference to significant Democratic gains in the November elections.

Two years ago, Abbott included a ban on sanctuary cities as an emergency item, which proved a legislative achievement that, heading into re-election, satisfied his political base but roiled the session.

The governor made no mention in his speech of the explosive recent controversy over a move by his newly appointed secretary of state, David Whitley, who is subject to a Senate confirmation hearing Thursday, to begin a process of removing noncitizens from the voter rolls based on preliminary lists that proved to include many newly naturalized citizens.

The governor's omission, state Rep. Celia Israel, D-Austin, said at the Democratic press conference was "another way in which he is passively condoning a voter roll purge. Our secretary of state is engaged in an organized, illegal attempt to purge Latinos and other naturalized citizens from the voter rolls."

Abbott also did not make border security an emergency item as he did in his first State of the State address in 2015, but he did fault the federal government for still not meeting its responsibilities on the border.

"As a result, I am once again asking that Texas step up and fully fund our border security program," said Abbott of what has become an $800 million burden on the state.

Property taxes

Altogether, the governor identified five emergency items: school finance reform and raising teacher pay; property tax relief; making schools more secure in the aftermath of last May's school shooting in Santa Fe; creating a Texas Mental Health Care Consortium to deal with mental health issues among students and the broader population; and applying the lessons of Hurricane Harvey to improve the way Texas responds to natural disasters.

The governor's choreography of the new session has been to suggest that there is a spirit of single-minded purpose committing him — along with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, the new speaker of the House — to redesign the state's school finance system and, especially, to enact legislation limiting property tax increases, an ambition that was frustrated in his first term.

The starting point for their effort is Abbott's plan to require voters to approve property taxes that lead to collections that are more than 2.5 percent higher than the previous year for local governmental entities with at least $15 million in combined property and sales tax revenue. That plan has been enshrined in identical Senate and House bills. But many local leaders, and Democratic lawmakers generally, believe that is an unrealistically stringent limit that could cripple local government and services.

There is a simpler solution, said Ann Beeson, CEO of the Austin-based progressive Center for Public Policy Priorities.

"Instead of the misguided SB 2 / HB 2 property tax scheme, the state should pay its fair share of public education costs if it wants to lower property taxes," Beeson said.

Schools

On education, Abbott said, "We are graduating more students from high school than ever before, but we have more students graduating who are not ready for college or a career. Here's the problem: Only about 40 percent of third-graders are reading at grade level by the time they finish the third grade. Not surprisingly, less than 40 percent of students who took the SAT or ACT were prepared for college."

To change that, he said, "We must provide incentives to put effective teachers in the schools and classrooms where they are needed the most, and we must create a pathway for the best teachers to earn a six-figure salary."

But Texas American Federation of Teachers President Louis Malfaro said that, in tying "teacher pay for a scant few, based on the misuse" of standardized test scores, Abbott is "out of step with the Texas public."

And, Malfaro said, "the governor gives offense to Texas teachers every time he and his education commissioner claim to want more pay for the so-called best teachers; the implication being that the hundreds of thousands of women and men who teach and support the 5.4 million students in Texas’ public schools are unworthy of being paid decently for the hard work they do every day."

In identifying school safety legislation as a priority, Abbott recalled that "after the horrific shooting at Santa Fe High School, I held roundtables with parents, students, educators, law enforcement, and mental health experts."

"When it comes to improving school safety, one solution everyone agreed on was the need to address mental health in our schools," Abbott said. "And as we all know, mental health issues are not confined to our schools. They touch our entire society."

For that reason, Abbott identified an initiative by state Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, to create a Texas Mental Health Care Consortium to collaborate on statewide mental health needs as an emergency item.

On disaster response, Abbott commended the House and Senate for looking to tap the state's rainy day fund "to help rebuild Texas stronger and more resilient than before disaster struck."

"And we all agree that we must apply the lessons of Harvey to improve the way Texas responds to natural disasters," Abbott said. "To give the Legislature time this session to make Texas more resilient to future disasters, I am making disaster response an emergency item."

Staff writer Johnathan Silver contributed to this report.

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